Saturday, January 7, 2012

Our generation didn't recycle?

Seriously, I'm not an old fogey, but I kinda like this story that was shared by my  Facebook contact, Rick Wade.
Checking out at the grocery store recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." 
She was right about one thing -- our generation didn't have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then…? After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I remembered we did have.... Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. 


  1. Before plastic bags took over, we used paper bags to bring home groceries, then they were used to line the trash can or cover school books, wrap packages, for drawing paper, etc. Sometimes the grocery store, if you asked, would pack your groceries in one of their used boxes instead of a bag, and a box could be reused for a lot of things, like storing stuff (because we didn't have plastic bins for storage), or a bed for the cat when she had kittens.

  2. Thanks for posting some more excellent points, Mary. I remember doing all of those things!

  3. I agree that this generation does not really care about the environment anymore. They are more concerned on the development of technology, but with the government's law against plastics, people are getting more and more aware now. It's good to know that this law or bill helps individual to become a responsible individual. It is always a good practice to use biodegradable plastic bags or paper bags when shopping.


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